Kane urges England team-mates to 'write our own history'

The Real Madrid man will now face some familiar foes from his time at Tottenham Hotspur in the form of England in the last four on Wednesday, where the winners will face one of France or Belgium in the final.

Croatia fans had a night to remember on Saturday, as their team reached a World Cup semifinal for the first time since 1998.

The Spurs forward and Golden Boot hopeful is preparing for England's biggest game in decades on Wednesday when the Three Lions take on Croatia in the semi-final.

Twice the sides have met in friendlies, with a goalless draw in their first clash in 1996 and England winning 3-1 at Portman Road in 2003. They also helped Fox hit new ratings highs for its coverage of this year's World Cup.

Gareth Southgate's side has been one of the surprise packages of the tournament, and after a slow start are now just 90 minutes away from only a second World cup final in their history. I missed the first half of the quarter-final while we were training, but I got in for the second half.

The biggest question mark now surrounds the fitness of a team who have gone the full distance in their last two matches and had several players struggling with injuries against Russian Federation.

England, the 1966 World Cup champion, last reached the semifinals in 1990. "It will be a battle again but I trust us, I have belief in us", Croatia coach Zlatko Dalicsaid. It was a good game against Belgium [in the quarter-finals].

Both scored in Croatia's devastating 3-0 group-stage win over Argentina, while Modric also netted a penalty in the 2-0 victory against Nigeria.

Croatia came from behind in Sochi with Andrej Kramaric cancelling out Denis Cheryshev's opener as the tie ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.

"We've worked hard on getting to know each other off the pitch and creating that togetherness and understanding with each other", added Stones.

England's remarkable set-play success is the fruit of extra preparation on the training ground with attacking coach Allan Russell, who has travelled with Southgate to the United States to study strategies from the National Basketball Association and NFL.

"I've been there going out to the pubs to watch England back in the day and it's surreal to see everyone doing that".

"They were sending them to their mums, dads and grandparents who wouldn't believe them when they said how similar I looked!"

Immediately after his penalty went in Rakitic was mobbed by his team-mates - in repeat scenes of Croatia's last-16 shootout victory over Denmark.